Are you one of the many who proverbially turned the page by switching to a Kindle for reading this past year?

Well, by opening up the Kindle platform to third-party app developers, Amazon has made some significant efforts to remain competitive with Apple, its line of iPhones, and the much-rumored tablet that is supposedly just around the corner.

Imagine if you could hold your iPhone up to a building and it would tell you not only what is inside the building such as stores, restaurants, and so on, but also who is in the building and what they are saying.

What if it also gave you information on items inside the building that were on sale or what reservation times were free at your favorite restaurant? Well, an architecture firm in Tokyo has created a building in Tokyo that comes with its own iPhone app that puts all this information and more at your fingertips.

Facebook Community Council: Citizen’s Patrol
Using users to monitor the facebooksphere for ‘ethically offensive material.’

Web design pundits Smashing Magazine’s foray into print publishing offers a great set of best practices and general design concepts invaluable to those on the interface side of creating websites.

These folks have consistently offered content of exceptional quality since launching in September 2006 and this book stays true to the high standards for which they have become known. After waiting nearly two months for our copy of the book due, apparently, to some glitches in the overseas printing process, I can honestly say the wait was worth it.